In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson was elected with 61 perccent of the vote—the largest share of the nation’s vote since 1820.
That same year, however, saw publication of None Dare Call It Treason, by John Stormer, a far-right flamethrower who claimed that America was losing the Cold War, betrayed by pro-communist elites. Stormer was a Goldwater delegate to the 1964 GOP Convention in San Francisco. He was a leader of the John Birch Society, and for six decades thereafter a leading “Christian nationalist.” In books, speeches, and sermons, Stormer denounced the liberal consensus championed by Democrats. He urged the destruction of public education, labor unions, and secular government in general.
I cite this book not because I want anyone to read it: Virtually all Stormer’s work has been discredited by legitimate scholars. I cite it only because that title accurately describes the current Republican campaign for the White House.
Even when Donald Trump announced his first campaign for the presidency in 2015, he complained that our nation was threatened by an insidious “invasion” of immigrants composed of “criminals, drug dealers, rapists … ” More recently, he claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our nation.”
Yet just last February, Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the plug on a bipartisan border security bill, a measure negotiated with and supported by key GOP senators. By these actions, Trump has forced the nation to endure a continuing national security crisis at the border.
To me, and to anyone genuinely concerned about the security of our borders, Trump’s action amounts to a treasonous dereliction of responsibility. He demanded that Republicans in Congress sit on their hands, keeping immigration issues alive for his flagellations throughout the 2024 campaign.
I don’t use the term “treason” lightly: If the conditions at the border are as bad as Trump makes them out to be, our nation faces a serious threat. To hear him tell it, immigrants imperil our economy, our neighborhoods, our safety—our very identity as a white, Christian nation filled with hard-working people who settled this land and made our once-great nation what it is today. (Hint: I don’t subscribe to this point of view, and neither should you).
There is clear precedent to the duplicitous treason of Donald Trump as he sinks all attempts to resolve the border “crisis,” stoking the flames of his GOP base with frightening images of an “invasion” at the border. That precedent: Richard Nixon.
Four years after his triumphant election in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson ended his campaign for a second full term after a poor showing in the New Hampshire Primary: With less than 50 percent of Democratic voters, LBJ had to concede that his own party opposed his escalation in Vietnam.
In ending his campaign, LBJ pledged to focus his full attention on negotiating an honorable end to the Vietnam conflict. The Paris peace talks, however, faced a concerted effort to halt any progress on peace by Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate in the 1968 election.
Using a “back-channel” involving a Chinese-American woman, Claire Anne Chennault, Nixon actively undermined U.S. efforts to work with peace negotiators from both North and South Vietnam in Paris. Nixon’s malevolent behind-the-scenes effort to extend the Vietnam War only recently came to light, collectively known today as the “Chennault Affair.”
By October 1968, LBJ had secretly offered to cease U.S. bombing of North Vietnam. With increased pressure from the Soviets to end the war, conditions for an end to hostilities were never better. Through Mrs. Chennault, however, Nixon’s henchmen sent word to South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu: If Thieu simply boycotted the Paris peace talks, a future President Nixon would cut a better deal for the South than any offered by LBJ.
By late 1968, the war had already cost more than 30,000 American lives. Navy pilot John McCain was already sitting in the “Hanoi Hilton” along with dozens—ultimately almost 600—of American POWs.
Nixon’s secret efforts to freeze the Paris peace negotiations had the desired result: LBJ couldn’t get an agreement prior to the election. In a three-way contest featuring the “spoiler” segregationist George Wallace, Nixon prevailed over Vice President Hubert Humphrey with a margin of less than 1 percent in the popular vote.
Under Nixon, the Vietnam War dragged on for five more years, taking the lives of another 25,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese. Could LBJ have negotiated an honorable peace in the last months of his administration? We’ll never know. … We do know that Nixon escalated the war even into Cambodia to bring North Vietnam back to the negotiating table.
Is Donald Trump’s treason in 2024 on the same level of iniquity as that of Richard Nixon in 1968? If you believe Trump’s depiction of “illegal aliens” as the threat to our national security that he claims, then surely it does.
Let’s review a sampling of other indicators of Trump’s treasonous abandonment of America’s best interests: Consider his cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, his willingness to abandon the 75-year NATO alliance, and his shocking embrace of murderous dictators throughout the world (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Hungary …).
Perhaps Donald Trump is unaware of how his entire campaign is compounding the national security threats facing this nation and our allies. When it comes to the border, however, we should never accept his ignominious—nay, treasonous—attempt to abort all reasonable efforts to resolve the “crisis.” Δ
John Ashbaugh prefers that a presidential candidate never resort to treason to win. Contact him through the editor at clanham@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jun 13-23, 2024.
Shanti
Good talking points from Russia. Putin brought his country out of collapse? Weird I thought it was the International Monetary Fund that stablized it, the privatization under Yeltsin (where the West stole most of the assets) ?
Yes Putin used his power to “stablize” the Russian economy by gangster methods (21 journalists killed since Putin came to power) besides all those that have opposed Putin the past 25 years, you know “falling out of windows”?
US biggest ally is Saudi? Weird I’d have guessed UK, Canada, France or maybe Germany. But Saudi? But yes
Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives”
But hey Trump’s son in law (Kushner) got his $2 billion for helping out Saudi right?
BTW, RUSSIA IS NOTHING MORE THAN A GAS STATION WITH NUKES!
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“Putin has brought his country out of collapse and I believe is the 5th largest economy in the world while the US sinks closer and closer to imploding”
Wow, how totally uninformed you are. You fill this blog with your blather, and don’t even check your facts.
The STATE OF CALIFORNIA alone has an economy about 40% larger than Russia. And the U.S., which is still UNARGUABLY the richest nation in the world has an economy more than TEN times larger than Russia.
Russia, IN FACT, barely has the 8th largest economy in the world and that’s only because of its natural resources, because the nation itself does not produce anything other than weapons of war. The Russian people have been cowed for decades and have one of the highest suicide rates in the world, more than one-third higher than the U.S. Look it up.
Vladimir Putin is spending virtually all of his nation’s money on a brutal war of aggression against a neighbor that did not threaten him. The only thing that differentiates Russia from a nation like Canada (which has a GDP only slightly less than Russia) is that under the Soviet Union, the regime spent every penny they had on nuclear weapons. Those weapons separate them from the rest. They are like a midget with an enormous right arm.
Moreover, the U.S. is not imploding, PERIOD, FULL STOP. Wages are rising faster than inflation, drug and health care prices are downan average American tapping into Obamacare has seen their premiums more than cut in half since 2021. Violent crime rates are down over 20% across the board in the last year. Infrastructure projects are happening across the board in every state in the union. Look around at California, its roads are being improved, its electricity grid is being upgraded. More renewable energy has come on line in just the last few years. A recent study out of Berkeley reveals that the Bay Area has seen a downturn in emissions levels in the last year because more drivers have turned to electric vehicles. Sure, inflation has been tough in recent years, but it is way lower than any other nation in the world. IN FACT, current inflation in Russia is nearly three times as high as the U.S. Look it up.
You know what, I can sort of understand your anger, if maybe you are indeed poor or things haven’t gone well for you, but to suggest that one generation is responsible for the world’s ills is nonsensical.
Instead of laying blame, why don’t you come up with solutions for our problems rather than simply pointing a finger. I never hear anything from you about things that could potentially be positive. You’re all about negativity. Too bad, because you seem quite intelligent, though obviously a low information individual. Maybe read a few books or put Audible on your phone. I do wish you well even though you seem to want to hasten my demise for no discernible reason.
Anyway, good luck, but please check your facts before popping off on this blog about things that are obviously false.
I am pleased to see Mr. Ashbaugh finally taking illegal immigration seriously, when so many Democrats fail to do so (with the exceptions of some of the mayors in Northern cities who find themselves flooded with illegals, and who are pleading with the federal government to do something, or at least send them some more money). Indeed, Ashbaugh pronounces it “treason” to allow the current flood of illegals to continue entering by refusing approve the deal that Biden has offered on the border, which is supposedly necessary to control the border.
But, perhaps we should consider the terms of this agreement. One, it does not restrict border crossing until illegal entries exceed 5,000 crossing per day, or 1,825,000 MILLION per year, and only then allows the president to close down the border. That seems pretty porous, and not much control at all. Two, despite the claim the Biden needs the legislation to control the border, he could easily do it immediately if he so chooses, without any Congressional approval. All he has to do is return to the “Remain in Mexico” policy used by Trump, instead of using his own “parole” policy which allows illegals to enter the country and remain for years while their asylum cases work their way through the courts and appeals, and to simply disappear into the country after their asylum claim is denied (as it is in 99% of the cases). In fact, Biden has so much power in this area, he recently announced an Executive Order to close down the border after just 1,500 crossings per day (or 547,500 per year), in order to try and deflect some of the political opposition he is facing from moderates and even his own party over immigration. If Biden is actually dependent upon Congressional action to restrict crossings at the border, how can be make this new Executive Order?
In reality, Biden is able to restrict crossings without Congressional approval any time he wants, just as all of his predecessors could. He just needs the political will, and the courage to tell his progressive wing to take a hike.